The next two days were tortuous. Evie had planned to be at the construction site with Antonio while the renovations were taking place, but instead, she found herself sitting in her apartment kicking herself for her choices. It was obvious that she had hurt the man who meant so much to her. A man she thought that maybe she was starting to love. It wasn’t like it had been with the magazine spread. This time around, there was no salvaging her choices.

She didn’t properly supervise the changing out of the artwork and his original work was damaged, and she’d pushed the change in construction plans without considering the ramifications. She had no one to blame but herself.

When Tuesday rolled around, Evie dragged herself out of bed and dressed choosing a plain black kurta and matching shorts. She headed to Bloom Tattoo for her shift, but couldn’t bring herself to look in Antonio’s direction as she slunk by the front desk. He’d made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. If she hadn’t been bound by a contract, she knew she would have been fired on the spot.

Everything was terrible, and she wanted more than anything to apologize, but she didn’t know how to approach him when he was so angry, and justifiably so. Evie couldn’t even appreciate the expanded tattoo bays they now all had, the new piercing room, or that someone had come in the night before to get all the furnishings back in place.

Her first appointment was a consult on a new piece and she did her best to appear upbeat, but even the thought of working on a new project didn’t generate the enthusiasm she normally felt. Her very next client was finalizing a large back piece. This was their third session and luckily it was mostly touch-up and some final shading as she found herself going through the motions wishing the day would go faster. Snapping off her nitrile gloves, she sighed heavily.

All she wanted to do was get through her clients for the day and then go home. It would be a long time before she felt confident enough to be her old self again.

The other artists noticed.

“You’re looking pretty crappy, Evie,” Red remarked. “What happened? Shitty weekend?”

“You could say that,” Evie said softly.

“Something happen with you and Antonio?” Red sat on her empty client chair, throwing his hands behind his head and reclining against the back.

Evie bristled. “What?”

“Well, I’m kind of jumping to conclusions, but I don’t feel like I’m jumping far. Have you seen Antonio today? He looks like someone ran over his new puppy. Most times the man is made of ice, but he’s just… broken.”

“He’s broken?” Evie asked softly. She glanced in the direction of the front desk. The walls of her room prevented her from seeing anything, but she imagined Antonio standing there, lost and sad….

It broke her heart. She frowned.

“Oh yeah. It’s bad. All of us have kind of been walking on eggshells around him, doing nice things. Not even Kimi’s up to causing trouble today. Can you believe it? She’s got her lips sealed and she’s playing the role of good girl so Antonio doesn’t have to chew her out. All of us are kind of worried. And then you’re here, super quiet and not talking to anybody, and you’re looking pretty downcast yourself. So yeah. I’m jumping, but it’s pretty reasonable for me to do it.”

Evie didn’t know what she should or shouldn’t tell him. Antonio’s business was his own, and their relationship was private. Everyone in the shop knew about the two kissing incidents, but it wasn’t as though they were publicly affectionate with each other while at work.

All of it was a mess, and Evie didn’t know if sharing it would make it better or worse.

“I don’t think I should be talking about it,” she said. “It’s not really my place, you know?”

“Suit yourself.” Red shrugged. “Antonio’s in the office right now, meeting with… someone. Some VIP client, or something. I wasn’t bothered enough to find out. So if you do want to talk, now’s probably the best time.”

Evie considered it, but before she had time to pass judgment, a man’s voice rose up over the shop music, infuriated. “You think green is an acceptable color?”

“Uh. Yeah?” Theo replied.

Evie instantly flashed back to less than two months ago. She rose from her stool and made her way to the door of the tattoo bay. Red followed her.

“Or you know,” Red whispered, “it’s a good time to fight, too. I’m pretty sure the door’s not soundproof, though, but… who am I to tell them what to do, right?”

“Where the fuck did you go to art school?!”

“Art Institute of Chicago,” Theo said stubbornly. “It’s a really fuckin’ impressive degree, if you want to look it up.”

“Obviously not, if you’re making filth like this!”

“Not again,” Evie breathed. Why was it always Theo who was getting into fights? It was like the pickiest, most vocal clients gravitated to him.

“My color theory is solid, and my contrast is—”

“This isn’t contrast!”

“Oh really? Why don’t you tell me all about what contrast is, then?” Theo barked. “You must be a color theory expert, if you know so much about what looks good!”

There was no way she was going to let this go on again. Antonio was in his office and couldn’t step in to break things up, and Theo wasn’t going to de-escalate the situation, so Evie took it upon herself to fix it. She left the safety of her doorway and approached Theo’s room. The man he was arguing with was almost as big as he was, and Evie knew she was outmatched in terms of strength, but she couldn’t let a fight grow into something bigger.

“What’s the problem here?” she asked.

“The problem,” the client turned on Evie and gestured to his back, “is that this numskull thought that putting these disastrous colors together on my back would look good. I’m fucking pissed.”

The man turned to show her the tattoo. Evie didn’t see anything wrong with it. All of the colors were vibrant and carefully selected to contrast each other. There were no discrepancies in shade or other wild variances. In her eyes, it was a good tattoo.

“You’re definitely entitled to feel that way,” Evie said sympathetically. “Why don’t we get you wrapped up so that you don’t get infected and we’ll talk about it? I’ll take over from here.” She shot Theo a look that urged him to get out, and to her surprise, he obeyed.

“I’m just pissed.” The man sounded nowhere near as angry now that Theo was out of the room. Evie cleaned him up and got his tattoo wrapped, then made sure he put his shirt back on. “It needed to be perfect, you know?”

“And those colors don’t agree with you?”

“It should have been darker,” the man said. “Should’ve been blues.”

Evie saw the problem with that right away. The client’s skin tone would have washed the color out and made something largely composed of blue ink look terrible. She rubbed her palms on her thighs, trying to figure out what to say. “I get it. I get pissed when things don’t turn out how I imagined, either. But if you can believe it, Theo had a reason for doing it like he did.”

“Yeah?” the man asked. “What was it?”

“He selected colors that not only went together and made sense with the piece, but that worked well with your skin tone. Since you’re a guy, you probably don’t wear much makeup.” She paused, looking at him for effect and he smirked at her. Taking a breath, she continued. “But when you’re choosing color for eyeshadow, it’s kind of the same idea. If you have blue eyes you’re going to choose colors different than someone with brown eyes, because colors work with each other, but they also clash with each other. Theo did a really good job making sure your tattoo would look beautiful against your skin.”

The man paused. He looked Evie over as though to see if she were bluffing. At last, he shook his head. “Whatever. I guess it’s not that bad. Cash me out now? I just need to go somewhere and have a coffee. Sitting for four hours has me in a weird head space.”

“I get the same way when I sit for long pieces,” Evie agreed. “Especially along the spine. Shit’s painful.”

“You’re telling me.” The man snorted. “Four hours of needles poking your spinal column? Not for the faint of heart.”

The situation had been defused. Evie never wanted to sigh out in relief more. She guided the client from the room to the front, and on the way, she noticed Antonio standing in the door to his office. He was watching her.

On her way back from the front, Antonio was still standing there. “Evie, can I see you in the office, please?”

The hairs on Evie’s arms rose. Her stomach twisted into knots. If talking that man down had been yet another mistake, she didn’t know how much longer she could stay at Bloom Tattoo. She was trying her best, she really was.

She stepped into Antonio’s office and closed the door behind her.